Cumberland Farms spending more than $25,000 on free Mass. Pike tolls

Tomorrow’s Cumberland Farms promotion will be the state’s second-biggest toll sponsorship in the past decade, as the Framingham-based chain spends more than $25,000 to promote its stores' SmartPay system.

All told, companies have spent more than $130,000 to sponsor tollbooths on the Mass. Pike since a WROR promotion in December 2005. (That’s apparently as far back as the easily accessible records go.) Canton-based Dunkin’ Donuts paid the most money of all sponsors, racking up more than $30,000 in toll revenue back in September 2006. Cumby’s is giving drivers on the Pike a free trip through the tollbooths from 5 to 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Allston/Brighton, Natick and Weston plazas. But drivers without transponders still need to stop at the booths, where they’ll be handed a Cumby’s promotional item, a DOT spokeswoman says.

Next, we may see a major fast food chain promoted at the booths, DOT officials say. A company they're not identifying is talking with the DOT about rolling out a new product that would involve toll collectors handing out coupons to drivers (no free tolls, though).

This Cumby’s promotion, aimed at drawing attention to its SmartPay Check-Link system, is the first of these tollbooth takeovers since the Red Sox sponsored the Allston booth in November 2012. Cumby’s is paying an estimated $22,500 for the cash tolls and $3,100 for E-Z Pass charges, a sponsorship fee and overtime costs, according to the state Department of Transportation. Roughly 12,000 vehicles passed through the three toll areas at the same time a year ago.